Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

Every orchestra I know, every opera house I know, is desperately looking around trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting young composers, supporting new ideas, supporting new ways of getting the message across.

If you think of the history, in the days of Brahms and Beethoven and all these guys, almost every concert was a new music concert. To play something old was really an exception.

Anyone who composes and conducts at the same time is immediately suspect, because he must be faking one or the other.

This conducting thing happened. In 1983 I was sucked into this international career, which was a very scary experience.

The players never think they project enough. In a hall that seats 3,300 people, it's a very scary thing to play so quietly that you can barely hear yourself.